Dogecoin: Looking Back and Moving Forward

This month Dogecoin enters the second half of its first year of existence. The digital currency became a hype immediately after its creation, propelling it to the position of second most popular cryptocurrency and primary internet tipping currency.

Crowd funding

Over time, its community surprised many by crowd funding multiple sizeable projects. The community successfully helped raising sufficient funds to send the Jamaican bobsled team to the Winter Olympics in February. One of the charity projects, Doge4Water, even led to the biggest internet tip in history. Twitter user @savethemhood donated $11,000 worth of Dogecoins to the fundraiser through a simple Tweet, making it the most expensive Tweet ever.

The community did not stop there, but started another fundraiser to sponsor a relatively unknown NASCAR driver. The community managed to raise the $55,000 required for a full body wrapped car by Phil Parsons Racing at a single race. The car was named the Dogecar, and was driven by driver Josh Wise at the Talladega Sprint Cup. The community also helped Josh Wise with appearing in the Dogecar again at the All-Star Race, by beating Danica Patrick in the NASCAR fan vote. Another two races were funded by selling t-shirts to the community. The first race (with a modified wrap) was held yesterday, June 22nd at the Sonoma Raceway. The next appearance will be at the Talladega Raceway again this fall.

Challenges

But despite the successes, Dogecoin is also facings its challenges. Scam coin Shibecoin tried to take advantage of the Dogecoin’s success by claiming it was responsible for Dogecoin community efforts. As Dogecoin features a Shiba Inu image on the coin and community members refer to themselves as “shibes” the action managed to convince some people unknown to cryptocurrencies. A more recent and more serious threat could be the company Ultra Pro, manufacturer and supplier of sports and gaming collectibles, trademarking the word “Doge.” The company has confirmed its attempt to do so. The community fears that this might affect businesses selling Doge-related merchandise and accepting Dogecoin. If Ultra Pro succeeds, this could potentially significantly limit and reduce Dogecoin acceptance, although there is still much uncertainty surrounding this.

Another issue that is painfully clear is Dogecoin’s inability to inform potential new users. The main website, Dogecoin.com, offers very limited information. The website offers more information on Shiba Inus than on wallets and exchanges, raising a high entry barrier. The lack of information leads to frequent basic questions being asked on the Dogecoin subreddit. At the same time, the inability to address simple issues like this indicates an overall lack of organization. Also, attempts to set up a Dogecoin PR Group or a Dogecoin Foundation have failed to date.

Uncertainty

In the meanwhile, a lot of uncertainty regarding Dogecoin’s future was sparked by one of its developers and community moderators. The developer suggested changing Dogecoin’s mining schedule by raising the inflation rate, to sustain higher rewards per block for a longer period of time. This time would be required to make Dogecoin sustainable in the long run, implying that this currently is not the case. It was later stressed that the proposed change was merely a suggestion, and that a single developer cannot make this change. Yet, the damage was already done. There has been a lot of uncertainty surrounding Dogecoin’s long-term stability and future mining schedule since, scaring off investors.

Moving forward

Altogether, Dogecoin has had several strong months in which it had many unexpected successes. But reality is catching up with the digital currency, and it will have to successfully address its issues to be able to secure its future.

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Comments (2)

  1. Adrien Guenther November 29, 2019
  2. Scott Rogers June 7, 2022